THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER FOR NIAGARA CUTTER DISTRIBUTORS SPRING 1997 VOLUME 2 NUMBER 1

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TheManufacturingof
MILLING CUTTERS &
SAWSGOES CELLULAR

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Cellular Manufacturing Niagara Cutter incorporated cellular manufacturing in the production of end mill products several years ago. The focused factory concept involves the conversion of traditional departmental manufacturing into specialized cells devoted to a product family. Under this process, the machine tools in the cell are arranged to allow for complete manufacturing of a product family from raw bar stock to finished tools. The staff forms production teams which are responsible for all aspects of the process. The benefits include: improvements in quality, productivity, capacity, inventory turns per year, and throughput.

End Mill Production During 1996, Niagara Cutter increased the end mill production facility in Reynoldsville, PA by more than 25%. The addition of production floor space, new CNC machine tools, warehouse, coating facilities and new IBM AS/400 computer have allowed Niagara Cutter to significantly increase output, inventory, and service levels to meet the rising demand from our distributors. During 1997, we plan to add production capacity, new machines tools, and introduce several new products.

Milling Cutter Production Recently, the manufacture of arbor-style milling cutters and saws was reorganized into our cellular manufacturing processes in Reynoldsville, PA and Athol, MA. In addition to improved efficiencies, tooling and fixtures, ten new CNC machine tools were added to these manufacturing cells. During these changes, our output, inventory and service levels on milling cutter products was affected. The new milling cutter and saw production cells have now been manufacturing at full output for several months, and exceed previous output. Standard milling cutter inventory and service levels have returned to meet the sales demand from our distributors.

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We're Creating Our Own On Ramp To The Information Highway

Niagara has started development of a proprietary web site on the World Wide Web. This site will be in addition to the information that we currently have online through industry.net. With the immense power of the World Wide Web, this new Niagara Cutter web site will allow us much greater flexibility in the format and amount of information that we can make available to the online user. Visitors to our web site will find a great deal of useful information for the metalworking industry. We will post a great deal of technical information that users can access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Visitors will find feed and speed data, case history applications, and answers to frequently asked questions. Our goal will be to make our web site a resource center designed to improve the productivity for the metalworker using end mills, milling cutters, and carbide tools. We will bring you more news about our web site in future issues.

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Capabilities Video Recently Completed A 10 minute video has been produced which presents the manufacturing capabilities, product line offering, and corporate operating philosophy of Niagara Cutter. This video provides an excellent corporate profile of Niagara and demonstrates how Niagara continually refines its manufacturing operations to produce more effective metal removal tooling. For a copy of the Niagara Cutter Corporate Capabilities Video, contact your Niagara Cutter Sales Representative.

Introducing A337 A New Line Of 3-Flute High Helix End Mills For Milling Aluminum. Manufacturing milling cutters and end mills that meet the demands for greater productivity in metal removal has always been a goal at Niagara Cutter. The most recent development for greater productivity is the introduction of the A337 end mills. These three-flute high performance end mills are designed to provide efficient metal removal for the demanding requirements of milling aluminum and other nonferrous metals. Niagara tool engineers combined a unique flute design and high efficiency geometries into a single tool. The A337 design allows for higher feed- per-tooth rates. In addition, the eccentric O.D. relief helps reduce horizontal milling lines and keeps chatter and annoying squeal to a minimum. A337 end mills are available in all Microshield coatings.

Visit With Niagara At The IDA/ASMMA Spring Convention Nashville, TN may be the home of country music but during May 3 - 5, it's going to be home to the annual IDA/ASMMA Spring Convention. This is a great opportunity for manufacturers and distributors to exchange ideas and foster a partnership for success. Stop by the Niagara Cutter booth, located at #931/933. Both corporate and regional sales representatives will be present to update you on new products, Microshield coatings, and new developments.

Visit Our Updated Web Site The Niagara Cutter web site, through Industry.net has been updated to reflect many of the changes that we have incorporated recently, such as our new logo. If you have not taken a look at our site, you can check it out at Industry.net.niagara.cutter. Through the Industry. net site you can also reach us via e-mail at: niagara.cutter@ industry.net.